>> hello and welcome to global 3000 -- your weekly check on the global issues that affect us all. today we are on the road, in the forest and underwater -- here's what we have coming up. near collapse -- why there's no easy way out of jakarta's traffic woes. coffee paradise -- we visit ethiopia's dwindling cloud forests. and man-made reefs -- how sinking a ship can provide a new home for many underwater species. the world's population is increasing and more and more people are gravitating towards

large urb an centres. the fast pace of growth in the so-called "megacities" means ever more slums, traffic chaos and pollution. while just over 40 years ago new york and tokyo were the only megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants, there are currently more than two dozen -- and the un forecasts that by 2025 there will be around three dozen megacities across the globe. asia already has many megacities -- the indonesian capital jakarta is one of them -- its 20 million inhabitants struggling with near-constant traffic jams every day. the city authorities are trying to improve the situation but it remains a constant challenge. >> just another afternoon in jakarta. welcome to traffic hell -- these are probably the busiest streets in asia!

3 million cars and 9 million mopeds are bumper to bumper here in the capital of indonesia. it's part and parcel of everyday life for taxi driver sudirno. he's used to tailbacks and frustrated passengers. during rush hour, the average speed is under 10 kilometers per hour. the best approach is to stay cool and try to be patient. >> all taxi drivers have taken part in anti-stress training. we need to be patient. if we get mad or excited, it's bad for business. we work on the streets,. we need to have our anger under control! >> but they're not the only ones who need to be patient. we're at the city planning authority, visiting a man who's facing an uphill battle. every day, another 300 cars and 1000 motorbikes join the city's

already clogged streets. how long does it take izhar chaidir to get to work? >> 2 to 3 hours. in the morning and in the afternoon. i spend at least five to six hours a day. everybody in jakarta is having their breakfast in the car. >> experts predict that the city will be gridlocked by 2014. but the government continues to promote private car ownershop with gas subsidies. >> the people can use their cars at weekends. saturday or sunday. we don't want to limit them to have their cars. but please, use it wisely! >> his appeal falls on deaf ears. in indonesia, the car is still very much a status symbol. all attempts to regulate traffic have failed so far. but now at peak times, the law

dictates that there must be at least 3 people in each car -- and that's helped create jobs. ita taing has been working as a what's called a jockey for seven years. she earns 15,000 rupiah per journey. that's about 1 euro 25. business has been booming since she became a mother. >> it's hard when you're on your own. but now i have my child with me we fill up a car and i earn twice as much. >> most of her customers are businessmen who are keen to avoid fines. >> the 3 in 1 system may seem absurd to some. and city planners have no shortage of ideas. now they're also working on a system based on license plates. >> we also want to limit the numbers of the cars by using different numbers -- odd numbers allowed on some days

and even numbers on other days. >> but car drivers shouldn't get too worried. the authorities have been bandying these ideas around for years. red tape always gets in the way. then there's the train system. we squeeze in along with the hundreds of thousands of other commuters who take the train in jakarta every day. a ride costs 2.000 rupiah, that's about 20 cent. forget sitting down and don't think about air conditioning. the trains are ramshackle and overcrowded but many people here in the capital have no alternative means of transport. anyone who misses the chance to get on board simply goes on top. like bahri! we gave him a camera and asked him to film his trip to work.

even with the electricity lines and pylons just above his head, he's not scared. >> it's a bit nervewracking the first time you're up here. but you get used to it. it's better than being down below in the carriage, where you virtually suffocate. >> i'd rather be up here with my friend. >> but accidents are commonplace. it's not unusual for train surfers like bahri to fall off trains or get electrocuted. the rail system estimates that at least 3 people die every month. there are no official figures. now the rail company is clamping down on train surfers. with concrete balls. encased in iron, they weigh 3 kilos and hang down just 25 centimeters above the roof of

the trains. the rail company hopes they'll act as a deterrent. they're confident they'll stop the train surfers. it's a draconian measure, but they're desperate. >> we've tried everything. we've put oil on the train roofs, barbed wire. nothing worked. these are shock tactics. hopefully it will put people off! >> human rights activists describe the measure as tantamount to a death sentence. instead of investing in infrastructure and tackling the roots of the prolem, they're preoccupied with the symptoms. but there is an alternative -- riding a bike. for the time being, it's not a popular mode of transport. but it's catching on. sukey is a cyclist. three times a week, she cycles to her job as an accountant. 30 kilometers through rush hour

traffic! >> the mopeds, the cars, the buses, they all cut you off and hoot at you, it's mad. cycling here is crazy but we have to do something! >> cycling as a protest against traffic chaos and pollution. sukey hopes that one day, jakarta's streets will be teeming with bikes. but before the situation gets better, it will probably get worse! >> i must admit that the last time i was in jakarta i personally didn't have the courage to cross the city by bike. from urban sprawl to the cloud forests of ethiopia. the country's kaffa region is the cradle of wild coffee. some 5000 types of the arabica

bean originate here -- and many varities were taken from here to other major coffee growing regions of the world. kaffa's coffee berries grow wild in the dense forests of ethiopia which are also known for their striking widlife. but in the past decades, these forests have shrunk to only 3% of their original size. we now take a look at local efforts to preserve the environment and the traditional way of life in this coffee growing region. >> sometimes, the kafa region stays shrouded in mist all day. here in southwestern ethiopia, the forests provide locals with their livelihoods. growing wild here in the undergrowth is the region's main source of income -- coffee.

right now it's harvest season -- aregash ago ambo and her sons are off to a part of the forest where they're allowed to pick coffee. it's such a precious resource, there are strict rules on who can harvest the coffee and exactly how much. >> if it weren't for the forest, the coffee plants would get sick and die. the forest also determines the weather. without the forest, there would be no rain.

>> for years, mesfin tekle has been working on conservation projects that ensure the cloud forest can continue to thrive. >> the project's value for mountain forest conservation is that it works with climate. this forest has huge potential for sequestering carbon which is part of the climate issue at the moment. and also the biodiversity is important for the ecosystem at a national and an international level. and also as livelihood support for locals. >> in 2010, a vast swathe of the forest was turned into the unesco kafa biosphere reserve. the project is supported by the ethiopian government, with funding from the international climate initiative and the german nature and biodiversity

conservation union. the cloud forest stores 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. it's home to many endemic species. but the forest is under threat. ethiopia's population is growing rapidly -- human activity is increasingly encroaching on the forest. what used to be forest is now grazing land. the result -- erosion and land loss. the biosphere reserve contains buffer zones -- in order to leave room both for humans and animals. these zones are patrolled by 30 rangers, who ensure that the forest remains undisturbed. >> this is part of the kafa biosphere reserve. it is a water ecosystem and it breathes the highland forest which drains the waters to this wetland, which serves as a reserve for endemic birds.

the feed here and in haven't in the forest. we also have the buffer area as well as a core area. >> aregash ago ambo can't imagine life without the coffee crops. for centuries, these have been part of her people's heritage. just like the cloud forest. she harvests about 300 kilograms of coffee a year. she only uses a small percentage of that herself. with the rest, she earns an annual income of some 200 euros. but climate change is already affecting the kafa highlands. she's worried about the future. >> the rainy season lasts much longer than it used to. that makes it harder to dry the coffee beans. a lot of them go mouldy.

>> poverty is the main threat to the forest. the government is hoping to boost tourism in the region. locals are constructing a first hiking trail. the hope is that tourists will stop here and buy local coffee. environmental conservation makes economic sense. getting this message across to locals is one of the primary goals of the conservation project. reforestation is also high on the agenda. mesfin tekle and the rangers regularly check up on the forest clearings. under the watchful eyes of the native wildlife. >> one of the problems is degradation of natural forest

and illegal occupation. to solve that, we are planting trees like these ones. one of the trees that has been degraded. we want to rehabilitate the forest. >> five hundred hectares of forest will be re-grown in kafa over the next few years. the cloud forests in the highlands of kafa can only survive with human help. for their part, the local population is aware that their futures depend on the forests remaining intact. over the past 50 years, ethiopia has lost almost all its forest. the cloud forest of kafa is often called the green lung of ethiopia. its loss would have a devastating impact on the climate -- and be the final straw for a country long plagued by drought. >> and now we head to bulgaria to take a look around the home of the well known writer, poet

and journalist rumen leonidov. the 59-year old has opened his home to us -- so we get to look around his private museum. >> hello from the bulgarian capital sofia. my name is rumen leonidov and i am a writer. welcome! this is my home. this here is the living room. this is vivi my girlfriend, and the mother of our two children.

she's making a salad. today is our 35th wedding anniversary. my living room is a bit like an art gallery. there's a lot here about my great-grandfather. he died fighting for the liberation of bulgaria at the age of 27. many of my friends are artists and they like to paint portraits of me. who knows why. i have 5 or 6 portraits -- which i never commissioned!

we have two children. a daughter and a son. they're studying and working abroad. our house feels much emptier now. that's very typical for bulgarian families these days. a lot of young people are emigrating. this was my first modern car -- a toyota. i just can't part with it. the first time i got behind the wheel, i felt as though i was in a plane. now it's full of books. before this i always had a trabant. thank you very much for your visit. you're welcome any time. goodbye!

>> malta is one of europe's smallest european countries but with great strategic importance. the island nation is an important stopping point for ships en route to and from the suez canal. the waters around the small island of gozo are a divers' paradise. the archipelago is littered with shipwrecks going back centuries. a magnet for divers, but also for many underwater species. here one man has taken the idea of turning the litter of civilisation into a new habitat one step further -- an experiment with an uncertain future. >> the village of marsalforn on the small island of gozo in the maltese archipelago. out here in the mediterranean, far from the mainland, the islands are highly vulnerable to the elements. the west wind brings with it towering waves. breakers like these can be fatal, as the many wrecks off

the coast of gozo go to show. beach tourists and divers tend to seek out the more protected bays. thomas zurawski runs a diving school on gozo. he used to be a miner but these days he's an expert on the region's unique marine life. >> the advantage of the waters around malta is that we're right in the middle of the mediterranean, there's virtually no major industry here, no major rivers washing toxins and waste from the inland into the sea. and for me personally as a diver, i think it's great that there are no industrial fisheries operating here. >> but the crystal clear water does have one drawback -- it contains few nutrients. so divers around gozo won't get to see many fish.

and many of the wrecks are just too far down. one way of creating more underwater attractions is to sink decommissioned ships. thomas zurawski documented the sinking of the first ship off gozo, 13 years ago. he and a team sunk the former ferry xlendi. their plan looked promising. but down on the sea bed, things went wrong. >> in the beginning we had to learn the hard way -- all we did was open the valves and let the vessels sink, keeping them in position with tugboats to nudge them into place. but unfortunately, some of them turned on their sides or even on their heads, which meant they weren't safe for diving. >> the xlendi landed on the

seabed bottom-up, leaving the superstructure -- the part most interesting to divers -- inaccessible. but in another unexpected development, the hull was covered with living organisms after just a few weeks. fish moved into the wreck's nooks and crannies, turning it into an artificial reef and enriching the local marine biotope. experts have been exploring the idea of artificial reefs for some time. florida is home to an underwater cemetery, where brightly coloured fish dart between stone sculptures and urns. not far away, an attempt was made forty years ago to create another artificial reef out of millions of old rubber tires. but the experiment was a flop. nothing has ever grown here. but fish do flock to wrecks. they love all their hideaways and vertical structures, which afford them protection from strong currents.

that's why the team in malta hoped their wrecks too would attract shoals of fish like these. fishing arond the wrecks is banned. initially, many fishermen in malta opposed the sunken ships project. they were eventually won round by the argument that the wrecks would attract young fish, thereby boosting stocks. that was the theory at least. the comino land and the karvela were sunk in 2006. these days, they're covered in plant-life and living organisms. but maltese biologists have established that the ships don't provide as permanent a habitat as organic reefs. in many places, paint peels off, taking with it any attached marine life. and many organisms shun such insecure surfaces in the first place.

meanwhile, us biologists have observed that wrecks also lure fish away from their natural reefs. in some cases, wrecks were covered in organisms just a couple of hours after being sunk, with fish never returning to their original reefs. thomas zurawski has been tasked by biologists with counting and collecting the marine life forms and plants that form the biotopes on his sunken wrecks. they're not the same as ones that develop on natural underwater rock formations, for example -- they tend to be more species that mostly live in the open ocean. it remains to be seen just how beneficial artificial reefs are for marine life. >> we had hoped to see an explosive development of new biotopes with the marine life that developed there then leaving the wrecks and heading into other biotopes, creating

new stocks. unfortunately this didn't happen on the scale we'd hoped. >> the wrecks are sunk in controlled conditions on sand banks such as this one -- where they're most likely to help boost marine life. even though it seems that artificial reefs are less effective than previously believed. in one respect, however, the sunken ships off malta have been successful -- gozo has become a magnet for wreck divers from all over the world. >> and here above water its time to say goodbye for this week. thanks for watching and don't forget to join us again the same time, same place next week. bye for now! captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--